"I fell in love with Coil's music as a teenager in the 1980s. . . . In 2008, Domino Records invited Optimo to put together a compilation of music for them to release. I wanted to include Coil's 'A Cold Cell' and after approaching Peter Christopherson for permission to release it he suggested doing an exclusive remix for the compilation. How could I say no? The remix was titled 'A Cold Cell In Bangkok'." --JD Twitch, May 2017 Single sided 12" single; silk-screened image designed by Lindsay Todd.

Penelope Trappes present her new album Penelope One on Optimo Music: "In 2016. I rented out a small piano studio in East London for nearly the whole year and set out to write an introspective, trendless, and mostly beatless album. Inspired by albums from This Mortal Coil and Scott Walker, who also sought freedom to work outside of the expectations of their previous work, I limited the instrumentation to mostly an acoustic piano and effects, which left space to expose a lot of emotional vulnerabilities about myself and people close to me. Writing lullabies about being a mother in a dystopian world, with pensive words about swimming against the current as a female artist, I felt free enough to tell untold truths that I've never felt comfortable talking about within music. Free, liberated, empowered, naked."

Black vinyl repress. Optimo Music present Iona Fortune's Tao Of I. Iona Fortune is a composer and producer from Glasgow and presents the Tao Of I album as her debut release. Inspired by Eastern Philosophy and slated to be the first in an eight album series exploring all the symbols of the I Ching, her music is influenced by oriental sounds and features a palette of instruments that includes the guzheng, gamelan, and Synthi AKS. The overall effect is a singular and beguiling sound that loosely fits in with the Fourth World concept imagined by Jon Hassell, and indeed Iona Fortune has also contributed a track to Optimo Music's Fourth World compilation Miracle Steps (OM 009LP, 2017).

Optimo Music present the debut EP from Glasgow-based Lo Kindre. Luxembourg-born and raised as an Irishman, Daniel Magee's personal dub interpretation is Lo Kindre, the result of a year of On-U Sound indulgence and Tuff Dub encounters, with time spent honing a live show across venues in Glasgow. His debut EP Plant Up presents a cosmic blend of swirling synth and low-slung bass offering Magee's own version of dub to the public for the very first time.

Miracle Steps (Music from the Fourth World 1983 - 2017) has been on Optimo Music's to-do list for ages, but it was only when Twitch and Glasgow's Fergus Clark started crossing swords over what actually constituted "Fourth World" music that the project really got going. Twitch decided that co-compiling the release with someone who had a slightly different take on things might make for a more interesting finished product, and so it came to pass that a cohesively thrilling compilation quickly materialized as each of them drew from a wealth of different artists and eras. For the uninitiated, here's an extract from Fergus Clark's sleeve notes honing in on how the term "Fourth World" (an idea conjured up by Jon Hassell in the early '80s) might be defined: "What we have attempted to gather across this compilation is a body of work which we feel directly resonates with both the literal definition of 'Fourth World' music and indeed our own interpretation of this unique sonic vision; from the work of the late Jorge Reyes, a Mexican musician who combined pre-Hispanic instruments with synthesizers and digital sampling, through to the work of organic ambient ensemble O Yuki Conjugate. There are tracks which utilize custom, home-made instruments and there are tracks built from scratch using the latest in digital technology, but the undercurrent tying each piece together is this deeply personal feeling of intrigue and mysterious elation. Strange and unparalleled, this feeling manages to eschew geographic borders and rigid genre movements in favor of something which manages to evoke an inner sanctum, a musical private place for both reflection and assessment. This is music grounded in nor the past nor the present, music which manages to sound futuristic yet remarkably nostalgic." JD Twitch is one half of Glasgow's Optimo (Espacio) and runs the Optimo Music and Optimo Trax labels. Fergus Clark is a writer, occasional DJ, and avid music fan. He is a founding member of the music and art collective 12th Isle. Housed in a gatefold sleeve designed by the redoubtable Glasgow based visual artists Al White and Jamie Johnson. Also features: Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma, Iona Fortune, X.Y.R., Jon Keliehor, David Cunningham, Larry Chernicoff, Sussan Deyhim & Richard Horowitz, Jon Hassell, Vulgata, Afro-Disiak, Rapoon, and Javier Segura.

Optimo Music present the second full-length from The Golden Filter, Still // Alone. After relocating to London and playing shows around Europe for a year and a half, self-imposed pariahs Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman delved into creating a two-sided existential opus by renting out old studio spaces around the UK and using mostly analog '80s instruments, machines, and effects. An album about being in love with pure solitude, Still // Alone is separated into two distinct records. Record one, Still, is a hypnotic meditation for the nightclub. Wavy patterns of sound and light bounce off of Penelope's literary vocal bursts, layered over the ominous deep synths and arpeggiators, held together only by a strict 4/4 beat - the rhythm, ironically forcing the body to move, however internally focused and mindful, still. Record two, Alone, takes the club offline and into the fringes of raw, odd pop. Ever-prominent drum machine beats rule, while love and loss permeate the four atmospheric goth songs. Music for dancing alone. "Behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern. . . the whole world is a work of art . . . there is no Shakespeare . . . no Beethoven . . . no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself." --Virginia Woolf

With his project Fred Und Luna, musician Rainer Buchmüller from Karlsruhe, Germany is paying tribute to his favorite electronic-oriented music by using its characteristics like repetition and beautiful melodies, putting them in a contemporary context and preserving their subtle and seductive charm. Fred Und Luna play their self-described Elektro-kraut (concerning songs that are basically Kraut mixed with electronic elements) and Kraut-elektro (which is Elektro mixed with Kraut elements). They live in Karlsruhe which - like Düsseldorf - lies next to the river Rhine. Perhaps Karlsruhe is the new Düsseldorf, with Fred Und Luna as pioneers.

Dennis Bovell presents Heaven. From Bovell's 1981 album Brain Damage is the magnificent "Heaven", a disco dub afro-sound dance floor bomb that somehow manages to sound more current today than it did 35 years ago. Also included is a slightly edited version that removes some of the vocals to focus on the groove a little more. The legendary "Escape Goat Dub" from 1981 sees Dennis outputting a crazy dub track with Garland Jeffreys to work on his new album. "Smouche" is another track from Brain Damage; three minutes of dub, funk-inflected Moogy summery joy.

London's Alex Warren, aka Kiwi, presents ThrowDown, a cover version of Carmen's cult and in demand 1986 electro funk hit. It comes in two versions, a 4/4 club mix and at the suggestion of JD Twitch, and an updated take on a "Latin Freestyle" mix. Both versions feature full vocals from Ciara Haidar and have "summer hit" written all over them.

Peter Zummo presents Dress Code (Don't Look At My Car) on Optimo Music. Peter Zummo (born 1948) is an American composer and musician. He plays the trombone, valve trombone, euphonium, synthesizer, other electronic instruments, and also sings. He is associated with the post-minimalist and Downtown aesthetics, and he describes his music as "minimalism plus a whole lot more." He's well-known for his work with Arthur Russell."In this project for Optimo, the listener can hear that my musical food pyramid has musicians at top, or maybe they are at the bottom. In any case, they are important. That is why, from track to track, I selected segments in which one player or another is featured in the take. Some may think that we musicians do multiple takes to get the perfect performance, but I like to find the special interactions lurking in each excursion. Different players came forward in each of the takes, which were recorded in the studios Seaside Lounge and Headroom, in Brooklyn, and live in performances at Cube Cinema, in Bristol, UK, as well as in Long Island City and on Staten Island, New York. In order to escape the tyranny of the lyric, I am exploring in this release the possibilities of nonsensical and non-emotional lyrics. These kinds of lyrics bring the singing voices into the mix without an overweening message. The tracks include open-form compositions in which the duration was not specified." -- Peter Zummo, June 2016.

Pussy Mothers is the behavior of a cross-continental two piece from Scotland and Down Under: formed by waving, not drowning. Chasing percussions, vocal athletics and hand claps concocted into a platter of disco-junk-funk and early hip hop rhythms, The Number 1 EP took shape in Glasgow's tenement flats and came to life through a spaced-out echo party held at Green Door Studios.

MR TC presents Surf & Destroy - four more tracks of analog plus live instruments delirium. MR TC has been taking his live show (which involves a four-piece band) out on the road to great acclaim. His music and DJ sets encompass leftfield disco, tropical oddity, house and techno whilst channeling the spirit of a youth spent playing in psychedelic rock bands in Luxembourg, listening to kraut-rock and worshipping Lou Reed and David Bowie. "Teeth" features Merlin Nova. This is just the beginning...

Originally released on the mighty Y Records in 1982, this single by Disconnection was a mutant disco cover version of a song from Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1949 musical, South Pacific which was made into a blockbuster film in 1958. Vocals by Angela Jaeger. This reissue is presented with the original configuration, with a radio mix, US Discomix and UK Discomix alongside the faux-exotica delight that is the Jaeger-penned "Aaaah."

Glasgow's Junto Club return with their second EP, Warm Me Up. In their own words ... "Naturally, this was shaped by our experiences of the first EP. While the first EP developed through our experimentation with new sounds behind closed doors, this EP was the result of our attempts to retrospectively understand those creations and the interpretations of others. Warm Me Up is not the same as the Junto Club EP because those virgin sessions can never be recreated. This is the middle aged existential crisis of the Junto Club. And we hope you enjoy dancing to it."

Noo (Daze Dasen aka Plastique de Rêve and Sami Liuski aka Bangkok Impact of Putsch '79) return with their third 12". "Kabuki" is based on classical Kabuki and Noh drama, blending taiko drums and mystical flutes with futuristic synths and crazy TV samples. "Super Mario" is a tribute to Nintendo video games, science fiction, the films of Studio Ghibli, and the geniuses behind the electro-disco-pop of the one and only Yellow Magic Orchestra. "Rainbow Road" uses sounds from the previous track for beatless waves of glittering synths and lonely vocoders -- the perfect soundtrack for the mind-bending final Mario Kart course.

Glasgow-based DJ and musician MR TC aka Thomas Clarke presents his debut EP, a unique, organic, mind-expanding 12" from the city's underground. An affiliate of Glasgow's prolific Green Door Studio, Clarke has immersed himself in the city's electronic music scene since arriving in 2009, running the Night of the Jaguar parties out of The Art School and DJing around the city. His music and DJ sets encompass left-field disco, tropical oddity, house, and techno while channeling the spirit of a youth spent playing in psychedelic rock bands in Luxembourg, listening to krautrock, and worshipping Lou Reed and David Bowie.

Limited 2016 repress. [Cease & Desist] DIY! Cult Classics from the Post-Punk Era (1978-1982) collects 15 UK 7" singles recorded between 1978 and 1982, compiled by JD Twitch to showcase the DIY spirit of those times. "If Punk was the nuclear detonation, the fallout that came after was where a lot of the most interesting music of that era was made. People who would never have thought to release a record before realised it was something they could do, and the end result was a DIY explosion. I've always loved music that doesn't try to fit in a particular genre, that is anti-canonical and doesn't care what else is going on in music at that time, that takes risks and is full of imagination and ideas that may or may not make any logical sense but that resulted in something unique, that ignores conventions about how a record SHOULD be produced and that was created simply because its creators felt the urge to express themselves and share the results with some other people. This compilation compiles 15 tracks that fulfil all those criteria. None of them had any success, most are (unjustly) obscure but every one of them has inspired me and would be in my ultimate 7" singles box" --JD Twitch. This release has been a real labor of love, involving tracing long-lost artists to far-flung corners of the globe, persuading them that the modern world needs to hear the music they made several decades ago, tracking down masters -- lovingly restoring 7"s in place of lost masters in some cases -- and conceiving an elaborate package with detailed sleeve notes to house the double album. Unfortunately, the original choice of title for this release infringed on the copyright of a series of well-known pop compilations released by a certain major label. They sent a cease and desist letter (hence the title of this edition), and did not accept proposed modifications to the original sleeves, so this edition is released in a more conventional package than was intended. Gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves containing sleeve notes and detailed overviews of each individual track by JD Twitch and an introduction by New York's DIY expert Dan Selzer. Includes tracks by Tesco Bombers, Sara Goes Pop, People in Motion, Nancy Sesay & the Melodaires, The Distributors, Dorothy, Thomas Leer, Visitors, The Murphy Federation, The Cro-Tones, Fatal Microbes, Spunky Onions, The Fakes, and The Prats.

The Golden Filter debut on Optimo Music with a four-track EP. Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman originally hail from opposite sides of the planet (Australia and America) but have united to create a distinctly unique electronic sound. Following several previous releases, their sound has progressed into a deeper, richer, advanced hypno-sound with state-of-the-art synthetic sound-design and vocal phrases ricocheting around the mix. It's hard to pull off tracks that constantly morph and develop over the course of a few minutes but The Golden Filter accomplish this with apparent ease on PS1103. Music for nightclubs and far beyond...

Optimo Music has no idea who Rita Furstenhof is/are. The mighty "Hadron Collider" was sent to the label in 2013. Normally sending one track is not much use, but this one was so good that the label instantly replied to say that they wanted to release it. Rita Furstenhof works in mysterious ways, and it was 18 months before the other tracks for the EP arrived. There were a few times when the label thought the artist had completely vanished, leaving the EP incomplete -- but here it is. Well worth the wait. This 12" is pure trance. Do not fear those words.

Sex Judas delivers the fourth Disco Plate, a golden slice of deep modern disco following a trilogy of EPs on Tim Paris's Marketing Music. "Musically it's all over the place, but the essence of jamming and the love for African American music shines thru. Inspiration is taken from German psychedelic rock, deep southern disco, rhythm and blues, classic house and techno, also taking a key from the avant-garde. And look, you even get Rob and Ricky's acid rerub thrown in for good measure. This 12" comes with a special 12 x 12 printed insert." --Sex Judas

Optimo Music presents the next wave of unique talent to emerge from Glasgow, once again recorded in the near-legendary Green Door Studio. Four tracks of highly original, impossible-to-pigeonhole, dancefloor-not-dancefloor music. Junto Club are four men from Glasgow who have remained friends since they were teenagers through creating music they love. While learning new instruments during a long winter, their sound was fashioned unexpectedly with sporadic melodies overlaid on taut drum machines, synthesizers, and bass guitar. Many humble dance moves followed as the band began to carouse behind closed doors with their newly-found rhythm. Presented in picture sleeve.

After two sold-out 12" EPs on Optimo Trax (Acido (OT 004EP, 2013) and Fusci (OT 008EP, 2014)), Boot & Tax head over to motherlabel Optimo Music for the release of their full-length debut. The Milanese duo of Cristian Croce (The Barking Dogs) and Claudio Brioschi (Brioski) are two of the most popular and respected DJs and producers of the Italian scene, who share a great passion for analog synths and experimentation and a deep knowledge of both clubbing and production. Dance albums are notoriously difficult to pull off and often fall flat, but Boot & tax succeed where many fail by making a record that will work on open-minded dance floors but isn't necessarily a dance album. Incorporating Brioschi's guitar playing, Boot & Tax's trademark eccentric instrumentation, along with their analog arsenal and the occasional vocal from Croce, they have managed to forge a uniquely characteristic sound world. Playful, psychedelic, hypnotic, captivating, the album comes in a gatefold sleeve on double vinyl.

Repress. Dennis Bovell's acclaimed career ranges from his work on the magnificent "Silly Games" by Janet Kay through his incredible solo albums; his production on albums by The Slits, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Orange Juice, and many more; to his astonishing mixes on piles of highly sought-after dub 7"s. In reworking Golden Teacher's music, he added organ and other instrumentation and pitched down vocals and basslines to create these delirious, dubbed-out gems. The previously unreleased "Instigator" precedes a rework of Golden Teacher's second single, "Like a Hawk." Housed in another classic sleeve designed by Oli from Golden Teacher. Mastered by James Savage.

Noo (Daze Dasen (Plastique de Rêve) and Sami Liuski (Bangkok Impact, Putsch '79)) follow their self-titled debut (OMD 001EP) -- a summer 2014 smash hit -- with the third in the Optimo Music Disco Plate series. Imaginative sampling and analog machines; phenomenally produced modern disco epics that fully work their magic in a club setting. "Must Be the Music": absolutely guaranteed not to appeal to moody techno fucks. Epic disco-ness abounds. Features breakdance potential breakdown at around six minutes. Huge with Pete Waterman. "Heaven's Gate": a soundtrack for evacuating the planet. Road tested on our last star trip to Sirius.